“YOU would never guess what we were doing last night, Aunt Edith,” said little May, looking as full of mystery as a sphinx; "you would never guess, so I suppose we had better tell you."
“I think I should like to try," said their aunt, smiling, as she turned to the table and saw that the children's large school Bibles lay there, with little pieces of paper showing here and there between the leaves. "Your mamma told me that she had allowed you to stay up a little beyond your usual bed-time, because you were ‘so very busy,’ and that she had promised not to tell me what you were doing; but I think I know. You have been finding something in the Bible for us to talk about, haven't you?”
“Oh! we did think we had such a surprise for you," said Charley; "and now you have guessed it in a minute. We found ever so many places where wells are spoken of, and we have a great many questions to ask you about them. May found the story of Samson's well, which God made to spring up for Him when he was faint from fighting with the Philistines; and I think it is almost as wonderful as the story of the water flowing from the rock for the Israelites in the desert.”
“I am sure you have not forgotten the beautiful name which Samson gave to this spring; En-hak-kore, ‘the well of him that cried.’ It was not only a refreshment to him to drink of the bright water, but this fountain, as it bubbled up, was a token that God was within hearing, so that he might have said, as David afterward did, ‘This poor man cried, and Jehovah heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.’”
“We did not notice the name of the well, because we wanted to find another reference; and we had not much time, Aunt Edith.”
“It is always a pity, when reading any Bible story, not to read it all through, May; for perhaps the very part we miss may be the most full of the lesson God would have us learn. But I shall be glad to hear what places you have found.”
“My first mark is at the twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis," said Charley, showing his aunt the place in his Bible. "You know Abraham's servant made his camels kneel down beside a well outside the city of Nahor, and then Rebekah came to the well, with her pitcher on her shoulder.”
“You have, indeed, found a beautiful story, Charley. We can almost picture to ourselves the caravan, tired with the long journey, resting in the lovely golden light of an eastern sunset, under the stately palms beside the well;—as caravans do even now- the camels kneeling, as they are taught to do when young. Just at evening time, when the men are coming home from their work, the women take their pitchers and go to draw the cool, fresh water; as did the fair and gracious maiden who was to leave her country and become the wife of Isaac,—so long ago.”
"But then the servant prayed, or he would not have known which maiden was to be the wife of his master's son. We can tell what he prayed," said May, reading from her Bible. "‘And he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: and let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast showed kindness unto my master.' See how very soon God answered his prayer, Aunt Edith," she continued. "In the very next verse it says, ‘It came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out.’ She was the answer!”
"It has been remarked," replied her aunt, "that this chapter contains more about prayer than any other in the book of Genesis. How sweetly must the gentle words of Rebekah have sounded as she let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave the weary traveler a draft of the clear, cool water; and how he must have thanked God in his heart when she said, unconsciously almost repeating his own words, ‘I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.’”
“I should think," said Charley, "he must have been glad that one who was so willing to help, and so kind even to the poor, tired camels, as well as so beautiful and gentle, was to go home with him, and be the wife of his master's son.”
“And when she came to her new home she found a well there, too, Aunt Edith; for we found more about that fountain in the desert which Hagar called after the name of God, who saw her in her trouble. It was by that very same well—Lahai-roi—that Isaac lived.”
“I am sure you and Charley must have taken trouble, May, to find these interesting references. I cannot tell you what pleasure it gives me to know that you have looked for them all by yourselves, without asking any one to help you," said their aunt, smiling, as Charley took another little slip of red paper from his Bible.
“My reference is to the second chapter of the book of Exodus," said he. "You remember, Aunt Edith, when Moses fled for his Life from the land of Egypt and came to Midian, he sat down by a well, and watched seven maidens come to draw water for their father's sheep.”
“And then," added May, "you know how some shepherds came and drove them away, just as they had filled the trough with water, and how Moses stood up and helped the girls; and one of them was Zipporah, who was the wife of Moses afterward.”
“I remember quite well, May, and I think I can tell you something in connection with this scene which will interest you. Travelers say that on arriving at a well in the heat of the day, it is quite a common thing to find it surrounded by flocks of sheep, waiting to be watered; and a traveler once came upon a party of very wild, fierce-looking men, just such as we may suppose the Arab shepherds to have been, who were drawing water in leather buckets and pouring it into the stone trough beside the well, for their flocks to drink. When these rough-looking men had finished their work several women and girls, who had been waiting at a distance, came up with their flocks and drew water for them.”
“That is very interesting," said May; "and it reminds me of one reference which I found: but I cannot tell where it is, because my markers have dropped out. It was about Jacob meeting Rachel at the well, and how, when he saw her coming, he ran, directly and moved the great stone away from the mouth of the well, and watered her sheep; and then he kissed her. How surprised she must have been!”
“But why should there have been a stone upon the well?" asked Charley; "was it to keep the water cool?”
“Water in the East," replied his aunt, "is guarded as a very precious thing; and many of the wells, especially in desert places, are covered with large, heavy slabs of stone, to keep the sand from filling them. In the center of the slab is a hole large enough to let down a leather bucket or earthen jar, and, just as a bottle is stopped by a cork, this hole is stopped by a wedge of stone, often so heavy as to need three men to move it from its place.”
“Isaac dug a great many wells,” Aunt Edith.
“Yes, Charley; he had very great possessions in flocks, and, no doubt, one of his objects in undertaking the great labor of digging wells was to provide water for them, to save them from dying from thirst. There is a very old Syrian custom which makes the man who is ‘lord of the water’ also ‘lord of the land;’ and a well was the property of the family of him who made it forever. One thousand seven hundred years had passed since the time when Jacob bought the field and dug the well near the city of Shechem, yet the woman of Samaria still spoke of it as Jacob's Well.”
“Oh, Aunt Edith, that reminds me to ask you whether that well where Jesus sat when he was wearied with his journey is to be seen now?”
“I believe it is, Charley. Travelers have tried to find out whether Sychar was the old city of Shechem, about two miles from Samaria, where Nablûs now stands, or a village near, which still exists, called’Askar; but all are agreed that the spot known among the Mohammedans as Bîr el-Yakûb, and by the Christians as Bîr es-Samariyeh, ‘the well of the Samaritan woman,’ is the very place where the Lord Jesus, ‘wearied with His journey,’ sat, and spoke of the ‘living water’ to her who came to draw from Jacob's Well.”
“How very much I should like to see it," said May.
“Can you tell us anything about it? What was it like?" asked Charley.
“We cannot be sure what this well looked like so long ago, for it is now only a great hollow basin, cut out of the solid rock, quite round, and with the, sides hewn perfectly smooth. It sometimes contains a few feet of water, but is more often quite dry.”
The woman of Samaria said, ‘the well is deep,’" said May. "Can you see to the bottom?”
“When last it was measured, the well was found to be 75 feet in depth, and it is probably deeper still, as there is so much rubbish at the bottom. The early christians built a church over it, but the roof and walls have fallen in, so that nothing can now be seen but a pit half filled with stones, while broken columns lie heaped around.”
“I see from the map in my Bible why Jesus ‘must needs go’ through Samaria-it lies just between Judea and Galilee.”
“Yes, Charley, that was the most direct way; but there was another road which the Jews preferred. A Jew who held fast to the tradition of the elders would be very careful to avoid Samaria, for he believed that to eat from any dish, to drink out of any pitcher, to sit on any rug or stool, to use any staff or saddle which a Samaritan had touched, would render him unclean.'”
“What did ‘unclean’ mean?" asked May.
“It was a dreadful word," said her aunt; "‘an unclean’ Jew could not go about a town, could not eat with his friends, could not enter a house or synagogue,-he was just like a leper. And we are told that to a Jew traveling in Samaria, bread baked, and even water drawn by a native of the place, were forbidden things.”
“Oh, now I understand, Auntie, why the woman was so surprised that Jesus should ask her for water. I always thought it so unkind of her to refuse Him such a little thing.”
“She was surprised, May, because she knew that the great Jerusalem doctors had forbidden Jews to buy anything of Samaritans—they were not allowed even to speak to them.”
“Did the Samaritans think themselves unclean?" said Charley.
“Far from it; they thought themselves very superior to the Jews, and believed that they alone had the true law, and the rightful form of worship. But I think I must try to tell you a little about them, and how they came to be a separate people, though living in the very midst of Palestine.”
“I hope you will begin at the very beginning; I never understood about the Samaritans; they seem to have been Jews and yet not Jews;" and Charley's eager face wore a very puzzled expression.
“We must go back a very long way, then, even to 900 years before Christ's coming, when Rehoboam, Solomon's son, was crowned at Shechem, the chief city of Ephraim. Do you remember what happened at the beginning of his reign?”
“Oh, yes, Auntie," said both the children; "God was angry with Solomon, because His heart was turned away from Him, and He had said He would rend the kingdom out of the hand of his son, and leave him only one tribe; and Jeroboam, to whom the ten tribes were promised, came with the people to Rehoboam, as soon as he was made king, to beg him to be a more gentle ruler than his father had been.”
“You remember very well; now can you tell me, May, What answer Rehoboam made?”
“He forsook the counsel of the old men who had been his father's friends, and answered the people roughly, according to the advice of the young men with whom he had been brought up.”
“Yes; and we are told ‘the cause was from the Lord,’ that His saying about the division of the kingdom might be fulfilled, as it was when ‘Israel rebelled against the house of David,’ revolted from Rehoboam, and offered Jeroboam the throne of the new kingdom.”
“Did Rehoboam reign over only the tribe of Judah?" asked Charley.
“Most of the tribe of Benjamin, and, afterward, the Levites remained with him; but the breach then made was never healed, thenceforth the people are spoken of as Judah and Ephraim, or Judah and Israel.”
“How long did the kingdom of the ten tribes last, Auntie?"
“For 250 years. It was then destroyed by the Assyrians."
“How many kings were there?”
“Nineteen kings, belonging to nine different families; but not one of them was a man who feared God, or tried to please Him.”
“I know Jeroboam did not fear God, for he set up those two calves at Bethel and Dan for the people to worship. We have just been reading about him at school, and of how he tempted the poor people. It does seem such a pity that they listened to him when they had the true God to pray to.”
“I daresay you remember, May, how often he is spoken of as the one who made Israel to sin? ' These idols were set up in the north and south of his new kingdom.”
“I see Samaria marked on the map," said Charley. "Who built it?
“Omri, the father of Ahab, built the city. You will find the account of his reign in 1 Kings 16 He was buried in his new capital, and there Ahab reigned, and before long a temple and altar to Baal were built there.”
“It was in Ahab's reign that Ben-hadad besieged Samaria; more than once, did he not?”
“Yes, twice the king of Syria tried in vain to take what was now considered the royal city of Israel. The prophet Isaiah speaks of it by name (Isa. 7:99And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. (Isaiah 7:9)), 'the head of Ephraim is Samaria,' and prophecies the destruction of the proud, strong city; which came to pass when it was taken, after a three years' siege, by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, in the reign of Hoshea, while Hezekiah was reigning over Judah. Kings 18:9-10.) Thus the kingdom of the ten tribes came to an end.”
“What became of the people?" asked May.
“They were carried off into Media by the Assyrians, and strangers were brought by the conquerors to occupy the deserted kingdom. We read (2 Kings 17:2424And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. (2 Kings 17:24)) that people were brought from different Assyrian provinces, and placed ‘in the cities of Samaria, instead of the children of Israel.’ So you see, the new Samaritans were not Jews, but foreigners from the far East.”
“Were none of the Jews left?”
“Probably all were taken away captive. But this is a point, Charley, which learned men have found it very difficult to decide. Of one thing, at least, we are certain;-these foreigners, of course, were idolaters; and there seems to have been no attempt made to worship God, until He, in displeasure, sent beasts of prey among the colonists; and on their complaining of their sad condition to their master, the king of Assyria, he sent one of the captive priests to teach them ‘the manner of the God of the land.’ This priest dwelt in Bethel, and taught the people how they should fear the Lord.”
“That was very nice. I suppose they all gave up their idols, didn't they, Auntie?”
Charley read, "So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.”
“That was very strange," he said, thoughtfully; "but what happened to them next?”
“Nothing is known of their history till, at the return of Judah from the captivity, they put in their claim to be allowed to share in the work of rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem.”
“Oh, I remember; that was in the times of Ezra and Nehemiah. Don't you know, May? They became such bitter enemies, when Ezra would not allow them to have anything to do with the work. But did they not afterward build a temple of their own, auntie? I have learned about it in my Bible History.”
“Yes; Manasseh, a man of priestly family, who had been banished from Jerusalem by Nehemiah, was allowed by the Persian king, Darius, to build a temple on Mount Gerizim for the people with whom he had taken refuge.”
“I suppose that is the ‘mountain’ where the woman at the well said her fathers worshipped, is it not?”
“Yes; the Samaritans were very proud of their temple, which they considered far superior to the one at Jerusalem. They sacrificed a passover there, and towards the mountain, even after the temple was in ruins, they worshipped, wherever they might be. They kept there, too, a copy of the Law, which they considered more ancient and important than any other.”
“But did the Jews ever own them as of the same religion as themselves?”
“No, Charley; though in course of time the Samaritans claimed to be of Jewish descent, and talked about ‘our father Jacob,’ the Jews would never acknowledge them, and, in the time of our Lord, so greatly were they hated, that you may remember the disciples actually wished to call down fire from heaven to burn up a Samaritan village, whose inhabitants had not received them. The Lord Himself called the Samaritan leper, who returned to give glory to God for his cleansing, a ‘stranger’”
“It was well for that poor woman that Jesus did not feel towards her as the disciples would have done. He never despised anyone," raid May.
The Lord, ‘full of grace and truth,’ could show His grace by becoming dependent on a poor outcast sinner even for a little water, as He sat, weary and thirsty, by the well, while He told her the truth about herself, so as to cause her to say to others, ‘Come, see a Man who told me all that ever I did; is not this the Christ?’”
“Are there any Samaritans now, Auntie?" asked Charley.
“There is a settlement still existing at Nablûs, numbering about two hundred people. But we must finish our talk about wells now, Charley—although I see you have some more references ready to show me—for it is getting very late.”